Eira snarled and shot a whirlwind of ice at him. In a glow of dull blue his armor absorbed the magic. Ejdair’s sick soul became iller. The armor… the warrior was wearing the skin and scales of a dragon. Ejdair dared not focus on the armor, he prayed to dead gods that he wouldn't know whose skin that was. The warrior was one of the Doryu - a human who had stolen a dragon’s magic.

The warrior bore a vicious double bladed battle-axe. In the frothy freezing mist from Eira’s spell, the blade’s metal shimmered an eerie blue. With a cry of rage the Doryu charged Eira. 

 There was a flash of steel and ice. Eira had reeled back. She fell into a defensive position. They circled each other. With every step Eira took her claws clicked across the stone floor. 

 Eira pounced. The Doryu fell back. But the whirlwind of slashes from his axe kept her at bay. He would lunge in, but her claws and teeth kept him at bay. Each gained small victories: a nick here, a cut there. They fought like this for several minutes; whirling in and out Ejdair’s sight as they performed this lethal dance. Then the Doryu charged head on. Eira opened her mouth in preparation to blast him with ice. 

 Ice shot from Eira’s mouth, a cold abyss raging towards the Doryu. The human warrior lept to the side but remained in his charge. 

 Eira had remained stationary, she was unable to see what had happened through the frost and mist that was clinging to the air. 

 A silver gleam glinted through the mist. With an eerily hushed metal scream, the axe cut through the freezing fog. The warrior was upon Eira. 

 The Ice dragon tried to spin to the side. A foreboding thwack echoed throughout the chamber and rattled the cold ceiling. In a squirt of hot blood, the blade dug deep into silver scales. They shattered like glass. Eira roared, as her whole body trembled. The axe bit deeper into Eira’s flesh and the muscle between her right shoulder and throat.   

 Ejdair cried out. Eira’s face blurred. Suddenly she was wearing all the faces of his dead comrades, all felled by Doryu: Lyvinsa, Ryku, Ceircey, Iyer, Dunheirv, Lyrii, and Regin. 

 Eira’s wings and legs buckled. Her dark blood continued to squirt. Thick rivers of it ran down her chest, arms and wing. Eira’s head hung as her breathing became raspy, and labored; her life ebbing away. 

 Eira locked her murderous eyes with the small gleaming ones that hid within the Doryu’s helm. A vicious silence leached away the hope and fear from both sides. 

 The chamber shuddered with a roar, that seared and sliced through the air with the force of lightning. 

 Eira’s maw was gaped open. A mouthful of dagger-like teeth rushing toward the human. The Doryu let go of his axe. He grabbed Eira’s jaws, and with the strength of a dragon he twisted them to the side. 

 A roar dripping with anguish and the fear of death, was let loose, and then cut short. A disturbing sound, like twigs breaking, echoed over the fading cry. Eira's neck snapped. 

Her body fell with a thud. Her head and jaws twisted in an odd way. In the throes of death her body spasmed. With a squelching sucking sound the human easily wrenched his blade from Eira’s dulling hide. 

 Eira was dead. Ejdair’s head spun as his soul mourned. 

  Eira’s last battle cry echoed in the silence of Ejdair’s mind, as her soul left this realm, Sevvet. To what plain of oblivion she had ascended too, Ejdair had no clue; he could only hope it was one that was worthy of her glory. The fringes of the ice ceiling began darkening into metal. Slowly the transformation began to creep inward, like storm clouds marking the end of the glory and visibility of a precious starry night.

 Regina looked down at Ejdair, her lidless eyes glimmering. They glittered like pearls lost in the mud. So many whirling emotions lay heavy in her sullen eyes: sorrow, pain, remorse, indignation, shame, and love. Each one was as raw and beautiful as a cloudless night smiling with heavenly stars. 

 Regina straightened. Every emotion, gone. Replaced by determination. She looked down at her cut. With shaking talons, she rose her bloody hands to the gash in her chest. Her talons curled into the oozing ripped flesh. 

 Ejdair screamed against the ice. He called out to the dragon, who was black as night. To the dragon who was said to have no soul. To the dragon who was said to know no love. He cried out that his life was not worth it. A spell like this… requires a sacrifice. 

 Regina’s face twisted with pain, as she yanked. Like a tapestry ripping, her flesh peeled back. For a moment, so brief that it had faded in with the same speed it takes a moth to beat its wings, a weak but defiant smile graced Regina’s lips. In brilliant arcs of crimson, she plunged her talons into the hole. Regina’s body swayed as life fled; like a jewel she cradled a crushed, but still pulsing, organ in her bloodied claws. 

 With his tears spilling, Ejdair lashed out at that last section of ice. Then he froze as an axe glinted, and blood splattered across the other side of the icey window. The heart thudded and rolled across the red window. The ice shot upwards and claimed it. A powerful pulse of magic rippled throughout the ceiling. 

 The metal transformation rushed forth with a new zealous determination, claiming all the last remains of ice. Within seconds Ejdair was plunged into darkness.  

 Ejdair gaped as colossal pain tore through him, rendering his new scream to a whisper. His soul was torn from his body. Its pale illuminecent mist like form swirled and writhed upward - to the beating heart claimed by ice. 

 Ejdair’s vision fogged over, as his anguished thoughts were soothed. The caress of magic soothed his mind, as easily as a woman smooths the wrinkles from her silk skirts. 

 Ejdair’s eyelids closed, as both his pain and mind numbed. Everything truly became dark as he entered the abyssal slumber.